The present invention is directed to a product collator, and more specifically, to a product collator for unscrambling and conveying cylindrical products, such as frankfurters or cigars, from a hopper bin input to a transfer belt, where gaps between unscrambled products loaded onto the transfer belt and where recirculation of the products through the collator are minimized.
Conventional collator systems, such as the Drake Model 9200 loader and the collator shown in U.S. Pat. No. 5,810,150, include an endless flighted conveyor having a plurality of flights extending in a transverse direction (perpendicular to the direction of travel), where each of the flights are sized to receive a plurality of food products such as frankfurters. The conveyor is fed multiple scrambled food products from a source, such as a hopper. The continuous motion of the conveyor conveys the frankfurters from the bottom of the pile of scrambled frankfurters upwardly toward a rake where any frankfurters lying above the flights are knocked downwardly again toward the hopper.
The collator of the '150 patent, rather than using rakes, conveys the food products upward at an extreme angle to cause the food products not securely settled within the flights to fall out from the flights, back to the section of the conveyor where the scrambled food products are fed.
Thereafter, the frankfurters received within the flights are conveyed to the bottom of the conveyor and are held within the flights by a rear cage extending adjacent to the conveyor as it travels downwards and rearwards towards the hopper again. The frankfurters within the flights are conveyed to a belt that is positioned at the very bottom of the unscrambling conveyor, where the belt travels in a direction perpendicular to the travel of the unscrambling conveyor. This belt transports the frankfurters positioned within the flights to discharge side of the associated flights. Thereafter, the frankfurters are conveyed to a discharge opening in the cage positioned on the discharge side of the conveyor belt so that one or two rows of the frankfurters will fall through the discharge opening onto a transfer conveyor, which transports the unscrambled frankfurters in an ordered fashion to a loading head for packaging.
A disadvantage with this conventional collator is that it is possible for an undesirable amount of "recirculation" to take place. That is, it is possible for an undesirable number of the food products to be retained on the flighted conveyor for an undesirable amount of time. For example, it is possible for a food product positioned within a flight, on the side of the conveyor opposite the discharge side, never to be transported to the discharge side of the conveyor, if new food products are continuously received within the flight between the old food product and the discharge side of the conveyor. Another disadvantage with this type of conventional collator is that it does not easily accommodate different diameters of the cylindrical products.